Need answers before Saturday.
I am building a paver walkway on the side of the house. Soil is Colorado clay. Paver base needs to be at least 4" and so quite expensive for a path that will get little use.
But wait! I have a ton of that crappy landscaping rock that I am more than happy to make disappear.
Explain to me why I shouldn’t use that for my paver base mixed with sand.
I couldn’t see the pic of the rocks. It shows a hotlinking error.
The shape of the rocks in paver base is important. They have a a functional, engineering purpose. They are jagged and various sizes so they get interlocked and don’t slide around. If the rocks are smooth and rounded, they will more easily move around and may get squeezed out. I would guess this might be even more of a factor if you are in an area with freeze-thaw cycles. You’d have to evaluate if the landscaping rock you have lying around was irregular shaped enough so that it would stay locked in place over time.
Those are mine, about 1 cubic inch. Think cheapest landscaping rock possible so it ain’t pretty smooth river rock.
I have a legendary tale of installing paver base and pavers. It did not go well.
You say you need 4". I assume that’s depth. How much width & how much length?
You know what materials you have and I sure don’t, but I could easily imagine the amount of inappropriate landscape rock you already own is about 10% of what you really need. So after you spread it around, you’ll need to decide between buying 10x more of the wrong rock, or scaping it back up for use elsewhere and buying 100% of the right amount of the right rock.
Good luck whatever you do.
I used these paver panels for a 11x12 paver project last year. The soil on my side yard is like concrete, chock-full of river cobbles, and the idea of digging down whatever inches was unappealing. With the panels all I had to do is level the area, lay a thin layer of paver base (yes, the right stuff, not random filler), then these panels. Worked out great, with less digging and less real paver base needed.
My go-to site for hard landscaping is Paving Expert and this link should go to the section on sub bases: FAQ for Sub-bases | Pavingexpert
All dimensions are metric, but all you need to know is that 50mm is around 2 inches.
I think the ~1" crushed rock that you have would work great. Add some sand if you can. As said, crushed rock will interlock.
I also live in Colorado, and have set down irregular sized/shaped I think slate as a walkway. Now this did not need to be neat and tidy at all, and I sort of fit them together like a puzzle so there are 2-3" gaps in it. I did not use any paver base at all. But then I’m way up in the mountains, so my soil (if you can call it soil) may be different.
Speaking of gravel, I have ~12 tons of road base coming today. I spread it on my driveway about every 3 years.
We put in a walkway alongside an existing driveway at our old house in about 1996 or so, and we used bagged concrete as the paver base. We basically dug it out, laid down a layer of dry concrete, set the pavers, and watered it all in very well.
It’s still there according to Google Street View, and doesn’t look any worse than any of the other paver installations we’ve seen.
In our own backyard, we’ve got something similar to what @enipla describes- a layer of large gravel, with irregular slate type stones set in as stepping stones. Seems to work pretty well, and the yard guys can attack weeds with the weedeater without causing the rocks to fly everywhere or damaging anything.
I am not familiar with ‘Colorado clay’, but normal undisturbed is clay is a perfectly good substrate for pavers. Any clean regularly sized rock product like a 20mm landscape rock will be self-compacting fill, so yeah, that good. Two inches or so of sand is used for ease of leveling. “4” of paver base" is basically a meaningless requirement.
Pavers need to be on a stable compacted base to avoid heaving and movement. That means removing any topsoil or other organic material. Standard practice is to remove topsoil down to undisturbed clay, fill as required with road crush and compact. Putting four inches of compacted base on top of organic material accomplishes nothing.
